The given are independent situations and you must refer to APES (Accounting Professional and Ethical Standards 110 “Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants”) and the Corporations Act 2001 as a minimum for each circumstances. You require to identify any breaches (beneath what section) and why. You must as well consider any remedy or alternative course of action that must have been considered for each where suitable.
There is no word limit set for this assignment however it is expected that each and every question will be well-covered and considered. Guidelines would be that each and every question must be of between 400-600 words.
1) Rodney Brick is completing a Master of Accounting part-time and has taken on a role as an auditing assistant with an audit/accounting firm and his first job is to help with auditing the books of Daffey Jones Ltd, a major retailer. Whilst undertaking the audit, Rodney comes across some financial information which he believes will help him in completing one of the auditing assignments he is currently working on so he copies the information and uses it in the assignment, though he is careful by eliminating all reference to Daffey Jones in order to preserve the client’s confidentiality.
Question: Has Rodney breached any auditing standards or regulations and if so, what and why?
2) Bertha Bigga has been the engagement audit partner on the Wait Alert Limited (“WA”) account for a number of years. Roughly one year ago, WA’s long-standing company secretary resigned and the company took nearly nine months to find a replacement. At WA’s request, Bertha functioned company secretarial duties throughout this period of time.
Question: Do you have any concerns and are there any breaches that have occurred here?
3) John Bartram is the son of factory manager of one of your firm’s major audit clients, John Worst Foods Limited. John is studying accounting, with a specialization in auditing at Holmes Institute. John applied for work throughout the summer where he could both earn money and also gain first-hand experience in his area of interest. He is assigned to the audit of John Worst’s Foods Limited where part of his audit work consisted of testing the internal controls of the cash payments and cash receipts system.
Question: What is the issue in this circumstances and what sections of the Act are bought into question? Is there something that must be in place with the audit firm?
4) Ocean Adventures Limited is a large importer or wholesaler of luxury cruise boats and is presently experiencing financial difficulties. Their audit firm is PVC Partners however they have not paid the audit fees for the past three years. The audit partner recently threatened to resign from the audit if the outstanding fees were not paid. To prevent this occurring, Ocean Adventures offered to supply AUDITRUS with a nine-meter cruise boat as payment. The partner accepted this offer in full consideration of the outstanding fees, even although the boat was only worth 75% of the balance.
As a gift, the Ocean Adventures as well gave the partner at 15% shareholding in an unrelated company. At present these shares are worth $21,500.
Question: What if any, issues exist in this situation? Must PVC have accepted boat and the gift (consider each one separately in your answer).